Hell Released
by Antiinc51289
Summary: Liam, a talented thief out to steal the tiara of the princess of Renais, is given a new path when the castle is attacked by a demonic army. He fulfills the last wish of a dying knight and rescues the princess instead, becoming her protector in a land that needs desperately needs her to survive.OCs, Rated M for supernatural violence and for creative freedom. Rate and review, please!


Liam came up through the loosened rock and stepped, undetected, into the heavily guarded Castle Renais, home of the royal family. The shadowy, moonlit corridors were lined with more wealth than the young thief ever expected to see in a treasure chest. Tapestries woven from the world's finest silk depicted lords of old, great generals, kings and queens, and the candles that lit the halls were set in the heaviest and most elaborately designed silver candlesticks he'd ever seen. Both almost had the thief hesitating in the middle of the well guarded hallways. He kept his focus, both because he was (newly) a professional on a mission, and because he was sure that those wall adornments were bolted to the white marble walls.

He looked down at his map, a magical artifact in its own right, which had his current location completely drawn out in front of him with a blinking light where he was supposed to be going. Padding through the halls in his soft soled shoes, he barely breathed, and couldn't have talked at a normal volume if he'd wanted to. He was in a special mode tonight, at the top of his game. Rounding corner after corner, quickly bounding up the stone staircases that allowed him complete silence, he laughed silently to himself that the guards he bypassed one by one had no idea that they were each being humiliated and would surely be in big trouble the next morning.

He was getting close, and he fluidly slinked into the shadow provided by a doorframe, only two rooms down from his goal, as a fully armored knight, iron lance in hand, lumbered past. How people slept with that monstrosity shaking the whole castle was beyond him, but at least he was easy to avoid. Now at the home stretch, Liam was surprised, and even a little disappointed to find that the door to the princess's bedroom was unlocked.

He felt a little creepy, or more than a little creepy, sneaking into a young woman's room for any reason, but looking around, he found that it was worth it. On her dresser a tiara, gleaming brighter than the moon in its own light, sat completely out in the open. Liam tried to get a peek at the princess as he crept along in her room towards his payday, but she was completely bundled in her blankets. Elated with joy and accomplishment, he picked up the artifact and looked at it closely.

Suddenly, he heard a grunt coming from outside the princess's window, and a young woman with gorgeous blue and gold streaked hair, along with gorgeous everything else, jumped gracefully through her own window. She looked up after briefly brushing herself off and looked dead in the face of the man who had invaded her room. Just as shocked as he was, they stared at each other for a brief second, contemplating, and moved suddenly at the same time. Liam attempted to start a miraculous escape out that very same window, but she reached beside her bed and deftly drew a sword from its scabbard, resting it expertly at Liam's chin and blocking his escape. "Drop that, it's not yours," she said, her voice a little shaky.

Still stunned at this horribly unfortunate turn of events, he looked back to the bed where he'd thought she was. She'd obviously covered a bunch of pillows to cover her own escape.

Now, Liam had been caught before, and in this sort of instance, he thought he might have a way to handle it. She'd thankfully given him a small opportunity in not shouting for the guards right away, and he thought he might still be able to possibly charm his way out of this situation. He mustered all of his swagger and looked directly into her... _'perfectly… beautiful… sapphire blue eyes…'_

About three full seconds later, he realized he'd been staring, completely dazed, and possibly holding his breath. She, on the other hand, looked like she was somewhere between being flattered and flustered, and her free hand was on her hip while her head was cocked to the side. She seemed curious, which was better than mortal terror or murderous rage. He would have understood either of those. Giving himself a mental kick in the head, he was about to help himself snap out of the trance she'd put him in by shaking his head, but realized he still had a blade to his throat.

She smiled just a bit at his ridiculousness, but tipped the blade up just a bit, pointing into his throat slightly more. "I've got you dead to rights, thief. I'm taking you to the guards." Her voice still shaky, but more determined, Liam finally got his head together and started talking.

"Interesting. I wonder what the king will have to say when he finds that his only daughter caught a thief because she snuck out of her room in the middle of the night… why, you didn't even have time to wash your hands or remake the bed..." he said with his voice catching a bit from the pressure of the blade.

She looked hesitant. "Well, I could just kill you and say you attacked me, that would tidy up this whole situation."

He looked at her with disbelief, and couldn't contain a grin. "Really? The kingdom's heart of gold, the pillar of honesty," she glowered a bit at that, "and yes, I've heard all the stories, is going to kill a man for a crime he didn't commit? Come now, princess, I believe we are at an impasse."

She lowered the sword, and he put his hands down. He was about to continue the game when he heard men shouting from outside the castle. Torches were lighting, and at first Liam thought he must have been found out. But then he heard the shouting turn into screaming, mad cackling, and the clashing of steel. A howl followed, a piercing sound that made his skin crawl, like there was something otherworldly to it.

Quick as a blink, Eliza had pointed the sword up again in his direction, but while she'd been confident before with Liam, she now looked utterly terrified and sick. The sounds were blood curdling, and Liam felt sick to his stomach as well. "What's going on? What are you doing?"

Liam, now trapped in a very strange and unknown situation, shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands. "What do you mean? This isn't me, I swear it." A large splintering sound and the shouts and steel clashing of men and something too clearly evil downstairs told him he didn't have much time.

She picked up her scabbard as the sounds of battle and the hellish growls grew even closer. Impossibly fast. She was clearly no longer worried about him. "We have to help, see what's going on!" she said, moving towards the door.

A snarl outside startled them both. "Wait, don't…!" he said, his hand out.

Just then, a behemoth of metal, the knight he'd dodged earlier, came crashing through the wooden door back first, a black dog made of shadow pinning him to the ground. It's jaws were being held off by the shaft of the knight's spear, but not for long as the wood was splintered in a sharp crack.

Eliza desperately lunged at the creature with her sword, and the dog avoided it with a leap but was nicked a little on its front leg. The blood splashed on the knight's armor, and quickly began to somehow eat through it as it bubbled and crackled. The knight was stuck on the floor, at first wiping at the blood, but soon screaming in pain.

Though the creature had blood in its teeth from the battle downstairs, it looked hesitant to attack the princess, and stayed out of the room while she pointed the sword in its direction. Liam looked at the window and thought about jumping out, but knew that outside was going to be no better. He also knew, however, that whatever he was going to do, he needed it to be fast. Crouching low on one knee, he drew a dagger from his boot, but as he got up he realized the demon dog had a new target. It lunged at his throat from behind the burning knight.

If there was one thing Liam was good at though, it was getting out of the way. Quick as a cat, he lunged out of the way, his head snapping to the side, and brought his knife hand up to stab the beast. He pulled the knife out as quickly as it had gone in and drew his hand away, avoiding the burning blood, and his strike had pierced the thing's heart. He looked at the princess momentarily, but felt his shirt being grabbed. The knight looked at him, his teeth and eyes clenched in pain.

"Get… the princess… OUT!" he said, his grip titanic.

The princess dove to his side, her now half melted sword clanging to the stone floor. She put her hands around his face. "Odren! It's ok, it's ok…" she said in a heartbreaking tone, watching him suffer. The knight was still looking at Liam, who was filled with a pure sense of purpose, one that wouldn't be shaken soon. He nodded.

"I will."

The knight relaxed his grip and started convulsing horribly. Liam pulled the princess to her feet and looked at her face, wet with tears. "I know how to get out, let's go." He dragged her out of the room frantically.

"This way!" he said, sprinting back the direction he'd come.

Liam worried for a second that she wouldn't be fast enough to keep up, but as soon as he looked back she slammed into him. "Keep going!" she said, exasperated. He didn't look back, and the two of them moved like jungle cats chasing each other. Slamming their hands into walls just to sharpen their turns, howls and cackles continuously surrounded them further, and there was less clashing of steel and more screaming of men. Jumping down a flight of stairs, they were almost to the secret loose stone under the arch sage's bookshelf that led to an old tunnel made during a long forgotten siege, their final goal, when Liam crashed into a hideous blood red skeleton with pinpoint red eyes. Its curved blade was wrenched from its hand by the body of a soldier it was imbedded in.

Liam landed on top of it, and it tried to grab his throat with hard fingers while gnashing its exposed teeth. Issuing a yelp of surprise, Liam hopped off and rolled to his feet, the narrow hallway not providing barely enough room to do so. The door to their escape was right behind it, but if they ran past and the monster and ran, they would be discovered. The princess had apparently thought the same thing, and already had a sword in hand that she'd gotten from the dead soldier's hand. The skeleton got to its feet and charged at them, and she deftly chopped its hand off as it tried to grab her, and attempted to end it with a stab to the ribs that instead bounced off the thing's backbone. Its other hand came around in a palm strike to her chest, knocking her to the floor. Liam pulled the curved sword from the dead soldier and swung, hacking at the fiend, its arms up in defense. From the floor, the princess spun and chopped off the leg at the knee, and as it crumbled to the ground, Liam managed to swing the blade directly into its skull. The light in its eyes went out and it stopped moving, but Liam and the princess, hearing something moving closer to them yet again, didn't.

Liam grabbed her hand and burst through the door, and she quickly but gently closed it behind them as he wrenched the stone from its resting place. He squeezed through first and they both crawled through the small hole to freedom.


End file.
